Green Ovingham
Minutes of meeting held on September 1st 2013
Present: Bridget, Bernice, David, Dean, Liz L, Roger, Arvind, Graham, Ali, Debbie
and Niki Black (research student)
Apologies: Lesley, Ed and Liz W.
Stocksfield Fair September 7th (12/1pm - 5pm): we agreed to share a stall with the
Food Group, and that we would probably take the Pluck a Duck and do paper plant
pots. Please let us know if you can help, even for a short while.
Ovington Fair September 14th: Bridget is available to join the Food Group and take
general GO information. Again, any extra help welcome.
Ovingham Middle School Hydroponics project: we had invited Jo Cousin to come to
the meeting to let us know more about it and see if we could help in any way,
especially in view of the fact that support from a community group may generate
funding. DR to email her about it again, and also ask her how much interest had been
shown in the butterfly monitoring information David had given to the school before
the summer holidays.
(Jo Cousin has just emailed to apologise for not attending meeting: it's Aquaponics –
which combines plants and animals in water – and the system is just about set up. GO
members welcome to go to see it. Presume not needed as supporting name for
funding)
Ovingham newsletter: this is to go out quarterly; it isn't an official Parish Council
newsletter, although councillors make up 50% of the committee. We agreed to
contribute to it regularly, and pay a small amount towards printing costs. The first
issue is planned for December, with contributions due in November.
Grass verges: there has recently been a letter in the Courant objecting to the reduced
mowing this year; we discussed the importance of only leaving as much grass
unmown as is consistent with safety/visibility, but that creating a pollination corridor
is also important, and that we should encourage OPC to support that policy. There
was also concern that the council contractors use weedkiller very liberally round
posts, trees etc. Dean will investigate the specifications the County Council includes
in the grass maintenance contracts, so we have full information ready for next OPC
meeting.
It was agreed that if people know the reason for leaving grass unmown they will
support it.
Bottle-collecting: we discussed the importance of having glass recycled. We agreed
that it was important to help people without cars to recycle their glass. We'll raise it
again with OPC, hoping that we might be able to agree on a site for a bottle bank in
the village, and David will ask NCC if they have any plans to incorporate household
glass collection into their recycling system. If there's no way to recycle glass in the
near future, we'll consider a way of collecting it ourselves, perhaps informing people
of our plans in the first village newsletter. We agreed to base our contribution to the
first issue on local recycling sites for those who can take their own.
Website: we agreed that we need to make regular contributions and keep the website
up to date. Arvind and Graham are interested in taking this on.
Collapse of footpath by Whittle Burn: Graham said that this is on the list of
maintenance jobs the Council has to do, but funding is a factor and it may not be
done for a while. While the stream is low people are crossing the burn to rejoin the
path beyond the collapsed section. The path along the west side of the Middle School
field joins the river path further up, so people can walk to Ferrylandings that way for
now.
Newcastle University Geography Department project on Whittle Dene: David has
talked to the people running this project and we agreed that we would like to find out
more about it and make a contribution to it.
Electric fence running along path in the field at the top of the Dene walk: this has
generated some concern, but is to prevent cows from approaching walkers. Agreed
that people need to know the reason for changes in order not to react negatively.
Niki Black's research project: most people were able to stay to contribute to Niki's
research into the role of the Goose Fair in generating community cohesion. There was
a lot of discussion which will be useful for future Goose Fair planning, as well as for
Niki's project.
The meeting closed at 9.40.
l